PFA Wrap Up

It has been a huge year for the Parents and Friends Association! Starting with the Welcome BBQ in February, another BBQ at the Fiesta, and a second-hand book stall as well.

Term 2 saw the third annual outdoor movie night, where we all enjoyed a screening of Encanto and lots of delicious goodies from the food stalls. Even though the wiley Melbourne weather made us postpone the event by a week, it didn't stop us from going ahead at our new location at the bottom of the oval.

Term 3 saw the post-COVID return of the parent social night with our Comedy Gala at the Thornbury Theatre, some of the jokes are still making me laugh. The night was accompanied by a massive silent auction with some very competitive bidding.

Term 4 has seen our biggest effort this year, beginning with helping at the Art Show where we pulled out the BBQs once again and assisted with the silent auction. The art show was backed up the very next day with 8 hours of BBQ and bake sale at the Referendum polling booth. 

But the highlight of the whole calendar has been the Fete de la Primavera! What a day that was. A huge thank you to Olivia Stewart who had a vision for bringing fetes back to Newlands and she did an incredible job leading the entire event. 

If you haven't seen them yet, here are the official photos from the day  https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP0LnpfbvgDDKeG6oXjJNEZB4mRYBncYRTIrPCxXTR8Z5mIk1wh6F76yyLMWVnbqA?key=T2RRWkpCWThaQWxQckVVblpPLUpTTmtVeTgySzJR

We are rounding out the year with our mango fundraiser with a late arrival on a late date, but a very sweet way to end the year.

Thank you to the PFA Team for all your amazing work and willingness to help out this year. A special thank you to all the people who have volunteered their time at our events as well as coming along to our events and making them a success. We have raised over $30,000 this year which is very impressive for our relatively small school community.

We look forward to another great year of fundraising and community building in 2024 and hope we can recruit a few new faces to our team. If you are interested in joining the PFA and bringing some of these awesome events to life, flag one of us down or join the Newlands PFA Facebook Group. 

Enjoy the holidays and I will see you at the next Welcome BBQ in Jan 2024!

Claire Moore

PFA President